01 July 2010

(EDRI-gram) Iceland's Parliament has recently accepted a proposal by Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI) asking the Icelandic Government to find "ways to strengthen freedoms of expression and information freedom in Iceland, (and provide) strong protections for sources and whistleblowers." Its approval by the Parliament may turn Iceland into a haven for media, with one of the strongest freedom of expression and whistleblowing protection laws. The IMMI has proposed several legal reforms including the limitation of the scope of an exception to existing source protection laws, the increase of protections for whistleblowers employed by the state and the creation of a law similar to the free speech-protecting anti-SLAPP (Strategic Litigation against Public Participation) law of California.